White Room
by whatthisisntme
Summary: Sequel to my story 'Repercussions' Erik isn't too happy when he wakes up. He'd been almost happy that he was going to die after his embarrassing confession. What will he do now that he might have to face up to the consequences of his actions and words?
1. Jealous of the Moon

_**I own nothing, this is all for entertainment. (as everyone knows)**_

_**Fair warning, this is a continuation of my story Repercussions, for those who asked me to continue it, and I would highly recommend going to read the previous story before going anywhere with this one. I've recently begun to fall in love with Nickel Creek, and the lyrics seemed to represent what was happening in this chapter and so I named the chapter after the song 'Jealous of the Moon.' I recommend you listen to it while reading.**_

**Jealous of the Moon**

The first thing that he recognized as he was waking was a splitting pain in his head, and the presence of many wires and tubes everywhere on him. Erik cursed, he hadn't died, and he was at the mansion, probably in the lab. The thought of being on one of the thinly covered lab tables made him shudder violently, which quite frankly, hurt. He opened his eyes, which were very crusty and tried to move his head, only to realize that he had a respirator attached to his face. He reached up and began to remove it, which made some alarms go off and suddenly Hank was rushing into the lab.

"You're awake!" Erik shot him a look. "I suppose you want the respirator off…" He scratched his neck nervously and Erik raised an eyebrow which made the younger man spring into action, gently removing the sensors and wires, and finally the respirator. "I should tell the Professor that you're awake." Erik sat up quickly in alarm, shaking his head.

"No. He'll know. No need to tell him." Erik glanced at the smiling boy who chuckled nervously.

"I guess you're right. I'm glad you're okay." Erik raised an eyebrow and snapped out of his brooding for a moment. This boy- no, man- was probably the sole reason that he was even alive. He straightened up, as dignified as he could be in the hospital gown that he was wearing. (Where they got such a thing and who put him in it, he did not particularly want to know.)

"Dr. McCoy?" The blue man looked up at him from the machine that he was turning off. "I would like to thank you, for my life that is, I seem to be in your debt." Hank seemed to be shocked by this.

"You saved all of us and stopped a nuclear war, and you believe that you're in my debt?" Erik clenched his jaw, only a little bit hurt that his appreciation was shot down so bluntly. He stood up and started out of the room.

When he reached the door, he paused, his hand on the doorknob. "I only wished to extend my thanks. Without you, I would no doubt be dead." And better off for it, but he was not going to express such thoughts. "I'll take my leave." He pushed the door open and stepped out, the floor cold against his feet.

"Hey! Take it easy!" The doctor shouted out the door and he sighed, the injury would prevent him from much physical activity, and he would heed the order, as he wanted to recover as quickly as he could.

He needed to get to his room before anyone could see him, before Charles could see him. He didn't want to see the blank expression and cold unfamiliarity that he knew he would be presented with, if Charles even wanted to see him at all. He inhaled sharply and grasped his side, it was still somewhat painful to breath and the sudden movement was worse. He vaguely wondered just how long he had been unconscious, but it really was of no consequence at the moment, all he really had to do was get out of here.

He entered his room without encountering anyone on his way and quickly dressed, pulled out his suitcase and threw all of his things into it. Suddenly becoming desperate to leave, having ruined his only real friendship that he had ever had, he wondered briefly who he was fleeing from. He knew that he couldn't really be fleeing from Charles as he knew somewhere inside him that the man would never want to ostracize him. But he also felt that the man would now be different. They wouldn't have the familiar friendship that he had grown to treasure; Charles would now pity him and be careful with him when they were together, not wanting to dissolve the friendship entirely, but also not wanting to lead Erik on.

Erik shook his head in disgust. He would save both of them the awkwardness, save Charles the trouble. Save himself from the pain such a relationship would bring. He closed his bag and looked around the room for a moment, a thought struck him, would it be better to leave now and never see Charles again? Or to see him every day and face the repercussions of his idiocy, see the rejection?

The first option was decidedly better. His door opened and he looked up sharply to see the smiling face of Raven, or Mystique as she now called herself. "You're awake!" Erik raised an eyebrow and smiled wryly.

"It seems that I am." She didn't seem to be phased by the caustic quality of his tone.

"I'm going to have everyone fix a great dinner and we're all going to celebrate the fact that our mission was successful! We haven't done that yet because you were the main person to save everyone.. and you were in bad shape, so it just didn't feel right." Her eyes drifted to his suitcase. "What are you doing?" He voice was steady and low.

"I'm packing." She clenched her jaw with such force that it was incredibly visible.

"I can see that." Her voice was low, dangerous. "But _why_ are you packing?" He sighed, which was decisively more painful than it should be.

"Because I'm leaving." She stepped closer and hugged him tightly, aware that as soon as she let go, he was going to walk out the door, down the stairs, out the front door and past the gate, never to come back.

"You're not allowed to leave. Have you told Charles? He won't let you do this, you know." It was Erik's turn to clench his jaw. She moved back a little bit, able to feel that he had tensed. "Oh no, you wouldn't do that would you?" She searched his face for a moment and looked away. "You were going to leave without telling him. Why? Why are you leaving in the first place?" She pulled him closer once again.

"I made a mistake, and I cannot retract my actions. It would be much easier if I were to leave before Charles could talk to me about it." His stomach churned and his chest clenched, from a pain that had nothing to do with his wound.

"What did you do?" Erik looked at her beautiful, searching, golden eyes and let his shoulders slump the smallest bit, Charles was going to tell her anyways, they were very close as siblings, he might as well tell her now.

"I told him that I loved him, and I do. But it would now mess things up, and the school has to run smoothly for everyone to remain safe. I will not jeopardize any of you." She looked up at him and if he hadn't known better, he would think that she was about to cry.

"How do you know that he doesn't return your feelings? What if you're just throwing it all away? And you're wrong?" Chills ran down his back and arms with the strange and weak sense of hope that came with her statements. But he remembered the immediate shutdown of Charles' usually open face after his confession. She had a good thought process, but she was wrong.

"He doesn't feel the same." She slumped even further against him and he was almost ashamed of himself for upsetting her like this.

"There's nothing I can say to get you to stay, is there?" He smiled down at her and shook his head.

She stepped back and half-smiled at him, wiping her face as she had started crying at some point. "Then I wish you luck, Erik. Come back some time."

He nodded at her, but did not agree aloud, because in truth, he knew that he was not going to return. He stepped by her and quickly exited the mansion, walking off of the grounds, towards the gate, absorbing every sight that he could, knowing that he was not going to see this beautiful estate again.

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"Charles." He looked up sharply at his sister's voice. She seemed to be upset and looked like she had been crying.

"Raven, what's wrong?" She took a deep breath and gave him a deeply scornful look of which he was surprised, but did not search her mind as he knew she would be offended if he 'violated her privacy' as she had claimed at some point.

"I can't believe you. I can't believe." She huffed and sat down crossly in the chair that sat across from him, chess table in between, his and Erik's game still set up and prepared for them to complete once Erik woke up. _If he woke up_, Charles' mind seemed to hiss at him. "He left. Because of you." Charles looked at her, shocked.

"Who left?" As far as he was aware, everyone but Moira was still on the property, but she had no real recollection of the place and had been sent off. But Moira was definitely not a boy and therefore could not be called he, which frankly, left Charles confused.

"Don't act like you don't know. Playing dumb has never been an attractive act of yours." Charles raised his eyebrows.

"Raven, I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about." She crossed her arms and slumped further down in her chair in what was most likely defiance of some sort. She gritted her teeth and held her arms closer to herself.

"Erik. He left." Charles' eyes went wide and he stared at her in a sort of disbelief.

"Don't be ridiculous, he hasn't woken up yet." Charles honestly did believe what his sister was saying, but he really didn't want to believe her. Didn't want to think that Erik would have left without telling him, slipped out and gone away, especially after what he had said before he had slipped into the coma that Charles desperately wanted to believe he was still under.

"He has, you can ask Hank. He left soon afterwards." _Hank, how is Erik doing?_ He sent the quick message to the doctor and was soon filled with the other man's confusion.

_He left sometime this morning, professor. I thought you knew that. I thought he projected that he was awake to you; he implied so, at least. I would have come and alerted you if I hadn't thought you already knew…_ Charles drew a deep breath at the man's statement. He turned back to Raven.

"Why didn't you tell me he was leaving?" Charles asked almost frantically. Erik was out there somewhere, most likely walking, and he had not even recovered from his wounds yet. He sent out a search and could not find him, so he must have gotten a ride because he was out of Charles' range, at least when he wasn't using Cerebro.

"Because you are the reason he left. Really Charles, how could you reject him like that? When he was dying?" It was now Charles' turn to be utterly confused.

"Rejected him? I did no such thing." She looked at him. "I told him that I returned the feelings, after recovering from momentary shock." They stared at each other for a few moments.

"He didn't hear me." Charles' statement was coupled with Raven's statement of 'He didn't hear you.' They both stood up abruptly.

We need to find him.

**Thank you to those who reviewed on Repercussions (the title is now spelled correctly.) I loved the praise and I'm very thankful to BloodFeud who pointed out my typo. I'm going to continue this story for a bit more, a few chapters if you want them. (:**


	2. The Runaway

** Big thanks to everyone who added this story to their story alerts, I appreciate knowing that people are reading this, and I assume that you like it… But I'd like to know what you think about it, so reviews would be greatly appreciated. Greg is an original character of mine, just so you guys know. The title comes from the Something Corporate song 'The Runaway.' I thought it was fitting.**

**The Runaway**

"_If you're missing I will run away  
>I will build a path to you<br>If you're missing I will run away  
>Because I find myself in you<br>_

_If I woke up alone I won't stop till I'll find you and you are with me  
>'Cause by now, I know you better than you know yourself<br>And I know what you really need  
>What you need, or I need<br>But either way this is where you should be  
>Here with me, or I'll bleed so much that you won't believe."<em>

"Hank!" Charles sprinted through the mansion, trying to find the blue man. But as it turned out, he didn't mean to find the scientist, the scientist found him, as he rounded the corner and ran right into him, and he would have fallen over if Hank hadn't caught him.

"Careful Professor, one day someone's gonna be too late to catch you and you're going to hurt yourself." Charles laughed and shook his head.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that; you're going to jinx me." But then he stopped laughing and remembered why he was trying to find the scientist in the first place. "Hank, how long do you think it would take you to rebuild Cerebro? I need to use it to find Erik." Hank nodded slowly.

"With the resources that I know you can provide, and the fact that I've already built it once before, it should only take a month or two." Charles sagged, he should have expected such a time as that, and really it wasn't that long, but it was longer than Charles would like to take. The man was sure to be elusive, even with his injury, but once he was healed, there was no stopping him and no telling what he would do or where he would go.

"Let's get to work." And the two of them headed down into the lab.

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In the two months since Erik left the mansion, he had done well for himself and gotten a job that he supposed you could consider honorable. He was now known as an exemplary machinist. He made plastic injection molds, dies and fixtures. He even made a set of metal cat teeth for a pet food testing clinic once. He rented a small office in which he would form the metal to the instructions that his customers gave him. It was really actually a fun job. He could use and perfect his mutation, and he got paid generously for it. Along the way he had met a young boy, Greg, who was also a metal-kine and had been working at one of the metal suppliers, purifying the steel and making sure that they weren't giving any extra to any of the customers.

The boy was now Erik's apprentice and he stayed with Erik at the well-sized apartment that Erik rented. The job that they now did was comforting, they kept the customers away from the actual business by delivering everything that they could, and never letting the humans actually go into the office or the building, lest they realize that there was no actual machinery being used in the operation and they become suspicious of what was actually going on.

The whole deal with Cuba had not blown over well, and everyone was on the lookout for mutants, which made what they were doing pretty risky, but when they thought about it, they wouldn't have been any better off doing anything else. With that in mind, the two of them fell into a familiar rhythm of work and companionship, and for the second time in his life since his mother and father, Erik began to really and truly care for someone other than himself. They often went out after work, Erik's arm around the much younger boy's shoulder in a way that would be fitting of a father and son, which was the exact image that was present whenever anyone saw them together.

Erik had created a life for himself outside that of good and evil, one that consisted of normalcy he would have earlier considered ridiculous and would not have wanted for himself. But now that he had it, he settled into it with alarming ease. Though he thought often of Charles and how he might have dealt with some of the more ill-mannered customers who complained about how perfect the work was. How ridiculous was that? The work that he and Greg did was too perfect? How is that possible? The conversation usually ended up with some harsh words and Erik saying something along the lines of 'come back when you have a valid complaint.' But he never really considered going back to the other mutants and the life that he had known before. It was out of the question, especially if he was expected to leave without Greg, he paused and ruffled the boy's hair.

But today Greg was going to be watching the shop while he was running errands, to get more steel, to drop some parts off. It was a normal thing, and Greg had reassured him several times that he would be fine, as he always was. Erik looked at him with a calculating gaze and finally nodded. "I'll be back around three, and then we can go get that ice cream that I've been promising you."

Greg lit up and nodded vigorously, shooing Erik out of the door, probably in hopes that the sooner he left the sooner he would be back. Erik laughed heartily when the door was shut behind him and started towards the car. He'd like to think that Charles would be proud if he could see him now. Would be happy because Erik was happy and was doing the right thing by the boy and earning an honest wage, or, well, as honest as it could be when he didn't really drill any of the holes or cut off the edges by hours of work. But it was something he could do and people were paying him for it, whether they knew what was going on or…

Erik shook his head. What was he doing, thinking of Charles like that? He didn't know the man anymore, and would do better to forget about him as he was sure Charles had forgotten about him.

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Charles and Hank had finished Cerebro earlier that morning and fallen asleep on the platform. It had taken two months worth of very little sleep for either of them to finish it. But it was finally finished and Charles was so anxious to find Erik that he would have shaved his head in order to get the machine to work. But only if he had to, his hair was find just the way it was, thank you.

He thought of Erik every moment of the time, when he wasn't involved with extremely complex mathematical calculations that would make the machine more efficient and less draining of his powers. He wondered what he was doing. Was he Nazi hunting again? But turning them in for the bounty now? Who was he with? Charles gulped at the next thought that entered his mind. What if he had found someone in his journey and no longer wanted him? No longer wanted to even be friends with him because he thought that he had rejected him so many months ago?

He still couldn't believe that the misunderstanding between them had led to a separation that had lasted this long. It made his head ache and his stomach churn to think of some of the things that may have happened to Erik to prevent him from coming back. _From coming home._ He nudged Hank, it was time to find out where the metal-kine was hiding.

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Greg had never really had a real home. His parents had basically abandoned him at a young age, left him on a street corner and only came back every once in a while to make sure that he was still alive and they wouldn't get charged for negligence. He'd figured out that he could control metal when he accidentally encroached on some other homeless person's _territory_ or whatever they had claimed it was. He had only been ten or so, and the other man was much larger than he was. When the man got out a gun, he put his hands out in front of him, hoping to get him to stop. He heard the bang of the gun and he closed his eyes tightly, only to feel no pain. He lowered his hands and the bullet that had been suspended between him and the man was now on the ground.

"Aw man! It's a freak! I didn't mean no harm kid!" The man ran away and word quickly spread that the little boy that lived on the corner of Fourth and Fremont street was a mutant, and not to be messed with.

One day he was approached by a couple of men in suits and he thought about running, maybe they were feds, come to take him away, but for some reason he stopped and stared at the men. Which was probably a good thing in the long run; they'd been there to give him a job, and he jumped at the chance. He wasn't happy in the job, he mostly contaminated the metals so that the more expensive metals were diluted with the ones that weren't worth as much, and it was an all around crooked business.

But now, he was glad that he took it, because it led him to Erik, who was the closest thing to a loving parent that he'd ever had. It had been two months, and he very much trusted the man. He was kind to him and he had his own room and things, and clean clothes, every day. He was allowed to work, was expected to work, but he knew that if he asked Erik if he could go to school instead, Erik would have easily allowed it, supported it, and probably helped him with his homework every night. And today he was going to get ice cream. They did such once a week, which was a shocking amount for Greg, but he enjoyed it and was sure to thank Erik each time.

So when the door opened two hours early he stood up smiling, putting down his work, having known that no one but Erik would have been able to open the door with the extensive set of locks on the door. But when a group of men in tight blue and yellow jumpsuits came in the door in a formation that seemed to be defensive, ready to attack, he knew that these were the men that Erik had taught him to protect himself against. The many hours of self defense came into use right now.

"Erik?" One of them asked loudly in an almost barking tone. Greg hid behind his desk and looked up at the metal parts that he had been working on. They flew off of the desk at his volition and pinned all of them to the walls by their wrists and ankles. "Erik? It's us! Why are you attacking?" Greg stepped cautiously out from behind the desk. Knife in hand, prepared to defend himself against these strangers who had broken into Erik's workplace, his workplace –their workplace- he walked over to them.

"I don't want to hear a single word from any of you, got it?" They nodded silently, probably knowing that he could keep them there easily without trying very hard. He looked at the boy with the chest plate. "Don't make me melt that. I will, and it won't be pleasant." The blonde raised his eyebrows but nodded solemnly. He felt a presence brush against his mind and snarled. "Get out of my mind." And then threw down his mental walls.

"Fascinating." Greg's jaw clenched when the man spoke, clearly against his wishes. "I've never had someone successfully and fully block me out without help."

"I said not to speak. I don't know who you are, and I don't trust you. But I won't do anything to you because you seem to know Erik, and if you really are his friends, I don't think that he'd be very happy with me if I hurt you." The telepath smiled at this.

"No, I don't think he would be very happy with you at all." Greg turned away and went back to his work, glancing at the drawings every once in a while to make sure that he was getting the measurements correctly. He needed to get the work done by the time Erik was back, which should be soon. If the work wasn't done then Erik wouldn't take him to go get ice cream. "Does he do that often?" Greg nodded absentmindedly to the telepath's question before realizing what had happened and he looked up, glaring at the man.

"Stay outta my head." The telepath smiled and nodded and they spent the next 30 minutes in silence, that is, until Erik walked through the door.

"Greg, I thought I taught you to lock the door while I'm gone, you know what could happen if the shop was…" He stopped when he saw the people bound to the wall and stopped talking. "Greg. What happened?"

"They broke in, so I restrained them, like you taught me. I didn't hurt them though, because they knew who you were and sounded like they were friends of yours…" He was rambling under the strength of Erik's glare. "I'm sorry."

"You did well, nothing to be sorry about." He let the men down from the wall with what seemed like reluctance. "What are you doing here?"

"Sean, Alex, Hank?" The three men turned to the telepath. "Could you take Greg outside, this is a private matter." Greg could see Erik gulp in what looked like fear and he was instantly really very concerned for his mentor.

"I'm staying here with Erik." He said firmly, planting himself behind the older man and staring up at the other mutants in defiance.

"Greg, it really is fine, they're friends of mine. Go with them." Erik didn't look at him once, but continued to stare at the dark haired man. He reluctantly moved; he knew when he was being given an order, and this was one of those times when you _did not_ go against what Erik said.

Besides, he was still clinging to the hope that he could still get his ice cream, and definitely did not want to do anything to upset Erik. So, with that in mind, he followed the others out the door, leaving Erik alone with the telepath.

** So I hope you don't hate me too much for leaving you guys hanging. XD**


	3. Dazed and Confused

To say that Charles was confused was a vast understatement. When he had searched for Erik, he had found a large presence of a metal-kine, and he assumed that it was just Erik, for he had never really had to search for Erik with Cerebro, and so he didn't really know what to look for. When they showed up and had been attacked by the boy, Greg was his name, he was even more confused, he had never expected to find another metal-kine, especially not with comparable power to Erik's. That was not to say that the boy was ever going to be more powerful than Erik, he was only a class 3 or 4 while Erik, along with himself, was a class 5 mutant.

He briefly wondered if the boy was related to Erik in some way, but realized that the boy was too young to be a sibling of Erik's and knew that he didn't have any cousins, so if the boy was of any relation, he was Erik's son, and the way that the boy thought of him, or what he glimpsed from the boy's closely guarded thoughts, was like a father. But that's where it confused Charles. He didn't believe that Erik was the type of man to ever leave a child on their own, after his childhood especially. So that crossed out the option of him being of any relation. So Charles then began to wonder how Erik came to find the boy, and why they were together.

"He's my apprentice." Charles was snapped out of his thoughts by Erik's admission. "I found him working for these humans; they were using his powers to cheat their customers, to cheat me, out of quality metal. It's very complicated, but he's very talented." Charles just stared at him for a moment.

"You've done well by him as far as I can tell." Erik stared coldly at Charles and he gulped, not quite ready to move the conversation to the more personal points he wanted to get to. "Did you teach him how to shield his mind?" Erik smiled.

"He taught me, I think it's something that he's always been talented in. A natural." Charles was surprised and impressed, that was most likely why it had taken so long to find Erik, even after he and Hank had finished Cerebro.

"I see. What exactly is it that you do here?" He looked around and saw the abundance of metal and the drawings.

"It's my business." To this Charles raised an eyebrow. "Lehnsherr Mold and Tool, LLC. We make molds and tools and dies out of metal, it's easy and good practice, especially when it's more intricate." He handed Charles a picture of the metal cat teeth he made, happy to show that he was actually doing something, he was useful, he was proud that he had something to show for the two months that he had been gone.

"This is amazing Erik, you did this?" Erik nodded at him and Charles swelled in pride, but there was a selfish panging in his gut, he wanted to be with Erik through all of his hardships, and especially through his triumphs. "I see that you have a life here, but I- We came here to ask you if you wanted to come back. You see, you left because of a misunderstanding." Erik had his jaw clenched and Charles could see that he was about to close him out.

"You don't need to say anything more. If you searched for me to speak about what I said, you're wasting your time, I do not wish to speak about it, especially not with you, I believe I have embarrassed myself enough with this, and quite frankly I'm over it. It was a folly on my part and I hope you can excuse me from my social faux pas." Erik was lying through his teeth, he was far from over his feelings for the other man, but if he wanted to regain some sort of standing with him, some sort of friendship, he had to convince him that he didn't really mean it, that it was the delirious ramblings of a dying man.

While Erik convinced himself that maybe things were going to get better between the two of them, Charles' thoughts started swirling continuously downward towards complete despair. Erik didn't really care for him, he hadn't meant it. He had moved on. Charles couldn't believe it, all of his searching was for nothing, and the man he loved wanted only a platonic friendship. Wanted _forgiveness_ for what he thought of as a mistake. He inwardly grimaced, but kept up the mask and made sure that Erik didn't see how hurt he was. Even if Erik did not want him in that way, he would rather have him around as a friend and colleague than not at all.

"If that's the way you want it.." Charles was about to continue, but Erik fixed him with a hard and cold stare.

"It is." The words came out quickly and harshly. Charles was forced to look away from the heat of the look and cleared his throat.

"I would very much like for you to come back to the mansion. Greg would be a welcome addition to the school that I was hoping to start, as you know, and I would love to have you teach German, if you would have time, because you're most likely going to move the business up to New York if you come." Erik raised an eyebrow and Charles blushed, realizing that he was just assuming that Erik was going to come back with him.  
>"I will come back with you, but whether Greg wants to or not is up to him." Charles sagged in relief, it wasn't what he had imagined, but it was better than nothing.<p>

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Even though Erik had said that they could trust these people, Greg wasn't too sure. They kept looking at him in the way that the other homeless people would right before a fight, like they were measuring him up. He kept quiet and made sure not to look at any of them for too awful long, sure that they were going to leap on him at any moment.

They didn't have the chance though, because the shop door opened and Erik stepped out. "Greg, I'm going back with them, you may come also, if you would like. Or you may continue the shop on your own." Erik looked down at him. "It is entirely your choice."

"I'm going where you go." Erik barely had the words out of his mouth before Greg replied.

"Good." Erik ruffled his hair and smiled at him. "We can get ice cream on our way back to the apartment. We need to go get our things." Greg beamed up at him and they stepped past the others. "We will be back in an hour." Greg grabbed onto his surrogate father's hand and looked behind them at the other mutants, resisting the suddenly strong urge to stick his tongue out. He was getting ice cream, and _they weren't._

The telepath smiled at him and he realized that he must have been projecting his feelings and thoughts, and the man had caught on to it. But by the way the blue eyed man was laughing, he figured that it wasn't really all that bad of a thing.

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They were, in fact back in an hour, no more and no less. Punctual as ever. Charles smiled and helped them put their bags on the plane, which he was very surprised hadn't gained more notice, but he supposed they were in a good business area, maybe planes they were somewhat familiar with.


End file.
